Tesla has filed an appeal in Superior Court seeking to overturn the state Motor Vehicle Commission's decision last month that effectively prevents the electric car maker from selling its vehicles directly to consumers. Above, a Tesla Motors Model S on display at the company's store at the Short Hills Mall.
(Emile Wamsteker/Bloomberg)

Tesla Motors is appealing last month’s state Motor Vehicle Commission ruling that would prohibit the carmaker from selling its luxury electric vehicles directly to consumers, bypassing franchise dealers.

Tesla said the new regulation contradicts an existing franchise statute the state Legislature approved that allows such direct sales.

In a statement accompanying the Superior Court filing, Tesla said today the commission had bowed to intense pressure from the state’s franchise auto dealers association, the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers.

“Franchise dealers have an inherent conflict of interest in selling electric vehicles,” Tesla said in the filing. “In order to do so effectively, they would need to enthusiastically tout the reasons why electric vehicles are superior to gasoline vehicles. This is not something that they are going to do since gasoline vehicles represent virtually all of their revenue.”

But James Appleton, president of the state Coalition of Automotive Retailers, rejected that argument, saying the other 13 car companies that sell electric vehicles utilize franchises, including in New Jersey. Tesla, he added, “wants total control over distribution to crush and eliminate competition. Franchises are intended to promote competition, which benefits the consumer.”

He said he is confident the courts will “recognize the compelling state interest in regulating the sale and distribution of new motor vehicles and that Tesla’s legal challenge of the NJ MVC rules will fail.”

Since 2012, Tesla has had two licensed retail locations in the state — in the Mall at Short Hills and Garden State Plaza in Paramus. It recently secured a longterm lease to open a third location in Springfield. The company sells its Model S electric car starting at around $60,000 before incentives.

That expansion hit a roadblock when the MVC unanimously passed the rule now set to take effect April 15, following a two-week extension. The Attorney General’s Office, which represents the commission in the case, did not return a call for comment.

Tesla’s fight with dealers across the country has increased scrutiny of U.S. auto franchise rules that go back decades. Already, Texas and Arizona have barred Tesla from selling cars directly to customers. New York auto dealer lobbying groups last week reached an agreement with Tesla to maintain its five company-owned stores, and Ohio lawmakers approved a similar measure.

New Jersey’s rule was proposed in October and Tesla gave public comment at the time opposing it. Tesla said it had been in talks with Christie administration staffers and with the state for months, and had hoped to sit down directly with the state Coalition of Automotive Retailers to hash out its differences.

Chris Christie on lifting NJ Tesla electric car sale ban: 'I am not a king.'New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is asked by an attendee at his South River town hall meeting why his administration is forbidding Tesla Motors from selling its electric cars through its direct-to-consumer showrooms. The company last week accused Christie of blocking innovation by passing a new rule that will force the company to close its two showrooms in New Jersey. Christie says he is bound by law to enforce rules requiring cars to be sold through dealers and the legislature is to blame for not changing that law. (Video by Brian Donohue / The Star-Ledger)

That all changed in March, according to the appeal, when “the governor and the MVC abruptly changed course, with no advance notice.”

Tesla has accused Gov. Chris Christie of striking a deal with the coalition, which strongly supports the rule and which donated $5,500 to Christie’s inauguration fundraising committee.

But in a recent town hall meeting, Christie said state law requires a car company go through an authorized dealer, and that “Tesla was operating outside the law.”